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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019718">Pick up the Pieces (and Put Them Together Again)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy8/pseuds/Lazy8'>Lazy8</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bad Things Happen Bingo [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amputation, Burns, Gen, Harm to a Minor, Lots and Lots of Really Bad Puns, Necrosis, Permanent Injury</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:53:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019718</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy8/pseuds/Lazy8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ozai still lost the final battle... but before the young Avatar put out his firebending for good, he made sure Aang would have something to remember him by.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Katara (Avatar), Aang &amp; Sokka (Avatar), Aang &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bad Things Happen Bingo [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846456</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bad Things Happen Bingo</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pick up the Pieces (and Put Them Together Again)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>Prompt:</b> Amputation<br/><b>Hurt Character:</b> Aang<br/><b>Comforting Character(s):</b> Sokka</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Even as Aang struck the final blow to finish the deciding battle, Ozai struck back.</p>
<p>Taking away someone else's bending took <em>everything</em> in him. While he was bending Ozai's energy, he had nothing left to spare for himself. <em>His</em> wellbeing, and the state of his own body, were now distant, secondary concerns. <em>His</em> physical state didn't matter, because if he slipped now, then <em>everything</em> was over.</p>
<p>So, it was only <em>after</em> he pulled out of the Avatar State that he registered the pain.</p>
<p>It was deep, a burning in his legs the like of which he'd only ever felt before when Azula had hit him with lightning. Even more alarming, though, was the realization that, below his knees, he didn't seem able to feel <em>anything</em>.</p>
<p><em>It seemed like Ozai managed to get the last word after all</em>, was his final thought as he fainted.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When he woke, the first thing he registered was a profound sense of disorientation.</p>
<p>The last he remembered, he'd just finished stripping Ozai of his bending. They'd been atop a pillar of rock somewhere on the shores of the Earth Kingdom. Ozai had hurt him, he'd figured out that much, but he'd been too intensely focused on what he was doing to register how badly. He must have passed out shortly after he'd finished. Now, he was in a bed, staring at the ceiling, in… in…</p>
<p>"Hey, looks like he's awake! Nice of you to join us, Aang."</p>
<p>Aang turned toward the source of the voice. There, in the bed to his right, was Sokka, one of his legs splinted and propped up on a pillow. Sitting in a chair by Sokka's bedside was Suki, an amused expression on her face.</p>
<p>Something in his chest loosened a little with the confirmation that at least two of his friends had made it through the battle. "Is… is everyone…?"</p>
<p>"Nobody died." Turning toward the source of the other voice, he saw that Zuko was in the bed to his left, bandages wrapped around his torso and shoulder. "Toph went to put Ozai in prison and Katara's out looking for more medical supplies and a doctor, and will, I quote, freeze us all to the beds if we don't stay put while she's gone."</p>
<p>At that, the knot in his chest finally dissipated in full. The war was over. He hadn't had to kill anyone. They were all okay.</p>
<p>Only then did Aang think to check the extent of his own injuries. Pushing himself into a sitting position, he gingerly lifted the blanket and took a peek under the covers.</p>
<p>He managed only the slightest glimpse of the bandages wrapped around his legs before the door slammed open and Katara bustled back into the room.</p>
<p>"Aang! You're awake!" She had a basket in her arms, which she set down on the nearest available surface before rushing over to his bedside, wrapping her arms around him gently.</p>
<p>"Hey, Katara." For a brief moment he allowed himself to simply relax in her arms, breathing in her scent as he rested his head on her shoulder.</p>
<p>To his right, there was a cough. "Get a room, you two! You're giving me the oogies!" Katara pulled away from him to glare at her brother, and Aang looked over just in time to see Suki smack him lightly on the shoulder right as a snowball hit him square in the face.</p>
<p>While Sokka was busy rubbing his face and spitting out pieces of snow, Suki beside him nearly doubled over in laughter, Katara returned her attention to him. "How are you feeling, Aang?"</p>
<p>"Um…"</p>
<p>Okay, now that he actually <em>thought</em> about it, he'd known all along that he must have been pretty badly hurt. Experimentally, he tried to move a leg, and was rewarded with a spike of burning agony all up and down his thigh that made him hiss in pain. To his growing alarm, he still couldn't feel anything below his knees at all.</p>
<p>"Ozai… he burned me." It wasn't a question.</p>
<p>"Yes, Aang." Katara leaned forward, taking both of his hands in her own. The rest of the room had gone silent, even Sokka's disgruntled grumbling momentarily forgotten. "I'm afraid he did."</p>
<p>"How bad?" Katara looked away, and would not meet his eyes. "Katara, <em>how bad?</em>"</p>
<p>"It's…" She shook her head. "Aang, it's <em>bad</em>. Most of your skin and muscle was completely burned away. I'm doing as much as I can, but… there's a really good chance you're going to lose your legs."</p>
<hr/>
<p>It could have been worse. It could have been much, <em>much</em> worse. He could just as easily have lost his <em>life</em>.</p>
<p>That was what Aang kept telling himself as his skin stubbornly refused to regain any feeling and Katara answered his inquiries with "Aang, it's… really not looking good," even as she pressed healing water to his burns. No matter what kind of shape he'd made it out in, he would always be grateful to have made it out <em>alive</em>. Still, it was… hard, to watch Sokka limp out of the infirmary on a pair of crutches with Suki at his side, to watch Zuko walk out under his own power a few days later even as Katara admonished him to "Take it <em>easy</em>." When Katara started changing his bandages a few days after the Comet, only for his nose to be assailed by the scent of rotting flesh, it told him the truth of what he'd already known ever since he'd come out of the Avatar State only to find himself reeling from Ozai's final blow.</p>
<p>"Aang…"</p>
<p>"I know." He squeezed his eyes shut, though he didn't try to stop the tears from leaking down his face. "I know."</p>
<p>He was given something to drink that he was told would keep him from feeling any pain. He woke up with Katara holding his hand.</p>
<p>"How do you feel?"</p>
<p>"Fuzzy." Aang reached up to rub the side of his head. "'M still out of it."</p>
<p>"Well, that will wear off soon enough." She rubbed his hand gently between both of her own. "You've already done enough for now, Aang. Take some time to rest."</p>
<p>Over the course of the next week, all of the others dropped by to visit. Aang wanted to be around them now, he did, but… there were so many things they just didn't understand, even though they tried. How was he supposed to do his job as Avatar, now?</p>
<p>"You're overthinking it, Twinkletoes," Toph said bluntly as she played with her meteor bracelet, twisting it into fantastic shapes. "Does being blind make <em>me</em> any less the greatest earthbender of all time?"</p>
<p>"But you were <em>born</em> blind," Aang <em>didn't</em> say, because he still had <em>some</em> sense of self-preservation and the glare Toph was sending somewhere to his left said that even the slightest suggestion that her logic was unsound would earn him a one-way trip out the window on the nearest available boulder. "I guess not," he said instead, deliberately waiting until Toph's feet were off the ground so she wouldn't be able to pick up on his lingering misgivings.</p>
<p>Zuko was slightly more sympathetic. "<em>I</em> wasn't born with half of my vision and hearing completely shot," he pointed out. "I learned to compensate anyway." He paused for a moment, eyes screwed shut as if working himself up to something. "I'm really sorry my fath—that <em>Ozai</em> did that to you," he blurted out at last. "I shouldn't have asked you to—"</p>
<p>"Zuko," Aang cut him off. "There was always a risk. I knew what I was doing."</p>
<p>Surprisingly, it was <em>Sokka</em> who managed to do the best job of making him feel better.</p>
<p>"Hey Aang, what do you call a witch who lives in the desert?"</p>
<p>"Sokka!"</p>
<p>"I dunno, what?"</p>
<p>"A sand-witch!" Sokka slapped his knee, doubling over in laughter at his own joke.</p>
<p>"<em>Sokka!</em>" Katara, who was significantly less amused, pulled away from healing his broken leg to give him a good glare, hands on hips. "What do you think you're—"</p>
<p>Aang snorted.</p>
<p>Katara's tirade stopped as abruptly as it had started. Instead, she and Sokka both turned with wide eyes to look at Aang, who was now giggling so hard his eyes were tearing up.</p>
<p>"A sandwich! That's good." Aang turned to look at Sokka, wiping a tear from his eye. "I don't suppose you know any more?"</p>
<hr/>
<p>"Hey Aang, what do you call a sick juggler?"</p>
<p>"Um…" Aang racked his brain, but couldn't seem to come up with a good answer. "What <em>do</em> you call a sick juggler?"</p>
<p>"Someone who can't stop throwing up!" He leaned forward to nudge Aang in the shoulder. "Get it? <em>Throwing up?</em>"</p>
<p>"I'm not sure I… <em>oh!</em>" Aang grinned. "Good one, Sokka!"</p>
<p>"And what do you call a fake noodle?"</p>
<p>"Wait, wait, I think I've got this one, it's… it's…" Aang scrunched up his face, before finally giving in with a defeated sigh. "I don't know what it is."</p>
<p>"An im-pasta!" Sokka and Aang both had a good laugh. Katara, who could neither leave nor cover her ears because she was in the middle of giving Aang a healing session, rolled her eyes with a groan.</p>
<p>"And what do you call a waterbender with no sense of humor?"</p>
<p>The snowball that hit Sokka directly in the mouth a split second later was somehow even funnier.</p>
<hr/>
<p>"You should take some more time to rest," Katara told him as she helped him into a wheelchair. "You've been through a lot, and you need some time to recover."</p>
<p>"I know." Aang cringed as the motion jostled the bandaged stumps of his legs, as if to help Katara make her point. "I will. But this is something I can't miss."</p>
<p>Zuko had already been putting off the coronation for Aang's sake, and Aang's presence there was not optional. While he <em>wanted</em> to take some time to rest and heal and adjust to this new normal, this was far bigger than just him; this was about the world, and finally putting an end to the Hundred Year War.</p>
<p>"I know. This is important." Katara laid a hand on his shoulder. "Just promise me you'll take some time to heal after this, okay?"</p>
<p>Aang reached up to squeeze her fingers. "I promise."</p>
<p>"Aang." Zuko smiled when they came into sight. He looked very regal in his formal robes, with his hair pulled up and out of his face. "How are you feeling?"</p>
<p>"I'll be fine." He reached up to clasp Zuko's hand, and was surprised (though not unpleasantly so) when Zuko bent down to hug him. "Are <em>you</em> ready? It's your big day, you know."</p>
<p>"I don't <em>feel</em> ready," Zuko confessed, rubbing the back of his neck, after they pulled apart. "But I don't think I have much of a choice."</p>
<p>"No," Aang agreed, "I don't think either of us ever did." He, too, was in his formal robes, with the wooden beads of a grandmaster hung around his neck—the Air Nomads had not stood on ceremony, but they'd also known how to put their best foot forward when it counted.</p>
<p>…not that such turns of phrase were even still appropriate, in his case.</p>
<p>"Okay." Katara leaned over the back of the chair to kiss the top of his head. "I'm going to go watch with Sokka and Dad, but I'll be right there if you need me. And take it easy, <em>both of you</em>."</p>
<p>Then, she was gone, the curtains were opening, and Zuko was kneeling as one of the Fire Sages placed the crown in his hair. Then, he stood, cutting off the crowd's cheering and applause with a raised hand.</p>
<p>"Please," he said. "The real hero is the Avatar."</p>
<p>Aang was still getting used to maneuvering the chair under his own power. Nevertheless, he managed to wheel himself up to the place by Zuko's side—the Avatar and the Fire Lord, united in purpose once more.</p>
<p>As the cheers of the crowd redoubled, Aang felt his eyes well. Things might be different now, but different wasn't always a bad thing. He could <em>do</em> this.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fun fact: I actually had to go search for all of the bad jokes because I am horrible at punning. (The one pun I came up with all on my own is not appropriate for this universe and the only one I can recall really being a fan of doesn't really fit in this situation.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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